


Darling, save the last dance for me.

by Akira_kun



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Growing Up, M/M, POV First Person, Prom, Reconciliation, School Dances, School Reunion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-03
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-03-10 09:15:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3284906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akira_kun/pseuds/Akira_kun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Prom was a nightmare for Naruto! It made him lose his best friend and he swore to never talk about it! But ten years later, there it is to haunt him again: The Senior Prom 10 Years Reunion! Naruto is so mad and irritated, he swore he would never go! But, hey, did you just say Sasuke is going?" SNS. AU. Side shippers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First dance

**Author's Note:**

> A.N.: Someone asked me for "High School Prom!" fic. But guess what? I can't write teenagers anymore. So this popped up.
> 
> Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. If it did, I wouldn't have fuck it entirely up just to get more money. Fuck you, Kishimoto!
> 
> Warnings: Secondary and side couples! I have weird tastes and people have sex. Deal with it. Also... *coughnosexonthisficcough* Oh, and Rainbow!Neji! (Because he couldn't be missing.)
> 
> Beta: Faery's Delight (aka Strailo)

**Darling, save the last dance for me  
** _|For me! Because I also deserve it!|_

 

_First Dance_

"Why are you naked?" Sakura screeched at my hears as soon as I opened the front door. I closed my eyes and pressed two fingers onto my forehead, trying to sooth the sudden headache away.

"I'm not naked, Sakura, I have my underwear on, in case you haven't noticed," I said, opening my eyes and looking at her with a confused and not so amused expression. "Why are you yelling at me at," I looked at the watch on the kitchen wall, "7.25 on a Saturday morning?"

"Because you're naked!" she stated and I almost slapped my face. "Do you always answer your door naked?"

"I'm not naked!" I declared, almost growling at her while she walked in my apartment, like it was hers, and headed for the living room. "And why are you here this early? Something happened?"

"Something very important happened!" Sakura was using the tone of voice of when she's too excited about something. And, unfortunately for me, Sakura being too excited usually had something to do with some very boring new thing she had found out or gossip. And I was seriously getting tired of Sakura's gossip. Not that she was like the old ladies in small villages, of course not, but without Ino 24/7 available to shared other people's dirt, I was the victim of Sakura's urges. Why that needed to happen at 7.25 in the morning of a Saturday, was the current big mystery of my life. "Wanna guess?"

"No," I yawned, crossing my arms in front of my bare chest and looking at Sakura's way too big and heavy looking purse. What did she had inside of that? A pair of bricks? "I want you to tell me so I can go back to bed."

"Why are you always so depressing?" She pouted and I took a deep breath in order not to yell at her. "It's Saturday, it's not like you have work to do."

"First of all, I'm a designer, remember? We always have work to do. And even if I didn't have work to do, I'm a night creature, I hate mornings!" Was it too difficult for Sakura to remember that I do not do mornings? Not even during the week I do mornings, let along on a Saturday! "And even if I did mornings, it's Saturday, Sakura! I went out yesterday, I fell asleep like an hour ago!"

"Which means you're perfectly fine to help me with this," she smile. She freaking dared to smile at me! "Come on, Naruto! I can't do this by myself and Ino is, again, nowhere reachable. So I kinda need your help."

"Can't it wait?" I asked, already knowing the answer, but a man can hope, right? She looked at me with narrowed eyes and I sighed before sitting in the couch in front of her. "What's the emergency, then?"

"It's finally coming!" she singsonged and I raised an eyebrow in questioning. Sakura was way too hipper for my likings and my mood was not the best at the moment. What the fuck was she talking about? She somehow understood that my brain was not processing any information at the moment and made an annoyed face. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"No!" I placed my hands behind my head and leant back on the couch. I noticed Sakura's eyes on my torso and abs before she moved them quickly to my face again. It was a little bit sadistic of me, but I really enjoyed Sakura's inner turmoil every time I - or any of the guys - showed up half naked in front of her. It was clear that she wanted to be a utter perverted and kept looking or even daring to touch (like Ino did most of the time - no shame at all, that one), but she tried so hard to be the controlled and decent woman she showed the society that I wasn't sure if I had fun with her general attitude or if I should feel sad for her failed attempts of being, according to her, decent. "Your birthday already passed, it's still a few months before mine, there's not big movie coming out, or any super badass concert, so no. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"The high school reunion!" she stated and I almost choked in my own breath. "Remember? It's next month! Our high school 10 years reunion!"

"Oh fuck," I muttered, a sudden nausea hitting me unprepared.

"I'm in charge of the organising committee and I need your help on this!" she smiled, clearly unaware that I was trying not to vomit. She could not be serious! "I'm going to need you to help me with the place and decorations. You're a designer after all, you're the best for this."

"No! No, no!" I started, but she started to ramble about the kind of decoration that she would love to have and how perfect it would be if she could make a perfect remake of our high school prom and that's when I got really sick. If high school was a no-no for me, our Prom was even worse. It was probably the worst day of my life and I was not going to help doing a remake of it. "I'm not going! I can't help you! Ask Ino about it!"

"Naruto! What do you mean you're not going?" she screeched again, hitting her hands on her lap and making a very annoyed expression. "It's our high school reunion. You _have_  to go! You were prom King, you absolutely _have_  to be there!"

"No, no, no! Prom was a bad thing for me, Sakura, you know that. I don't want to revive that again. No way!" I got up and walked to the kitchen to fetch an apple before returning to a very annoyed Sakura in my living room.

"It's our high school reunion! Everyone _has_  to be there, Naruto. Stop being a child with a fake trauma over Prom." she hissed at me. "We haven't been all together in 10 years! And you were popular and prom king. You are an essential presence there!"

"I don't want to!" Yes, I was acting like a freaking child, but it was bad enough to go to one prom, I didn't need a second one. Specially with the exact same people and the exact same mood! "I don't want to do with any of it! I don't even want to see half of the people!"

"You need to help me with this, you moron!" Sakura growled at me and got up, really mad this time. "It's the most important event of the year! You have to be there and you have to help me out! I can't do all this by myself!"

"Call Ino!" I told her, trying to avoid the mad glare she was casting me. "Or Shikamaru! Or Neji!"

"Neji and Shikamaru would never help me out with this and you know it. For god's sake, Naruto!" She rolled her eyes and pointed to her cellphone on top of the tea table. "And Ino is nowhere to be found! You know she's always travelling with that job of hers and I never get to reach her! It's freaking impossible! She was supposed to arrive yesterday, but she's not answering her phone! She would be a way better choice than you for this! She might not be a designer, but she doesn't have a ridiculous trauma over prom!"

"My trauma is not ridiculous!" I stated, mad. My brain was clearly not working properly at the moment. "Prom ruined my life!"

"Why are you being such a baby?!" she yelled and I sighed in desperation. Was that so hard to understand that I would not help out, or go to a thing that was one the most awful memories of my life?

"Why are you being so obsessed over this?" I questioned, mad, sleepy, desperate. Sakura was killing me.

"Why are you two imbeciles screaming at 7.40 in a fucking Saturday morning?!" And that was Ino, standing in the door of my living room, wearing one of my t-shirts and with one of the most scary expressions I've ever seen. "I had a damn long flight and an even longer night, I would very much like to sleep!"

"Why are you naked?!" Sakura interrogated her in a too high pitch voice and it felt like I was being stabbed in the brain with a massive needle. "And why are you here?"

"I'm not naked and I was trying to sleep. But it's kinda impossible with the two of you yelling like children!" Ino hissed, crossing her arms and leaning against the door frame. "What's all the ruckus about?"

"Why were you trying to sleep naked at Naruto's house?" I swear I don't know how Sakura was able to be so clueless about something so obvious like this. The situation was not pretty and waking up Ino like that only meant she was in a bad mood.

"Because I returned to town after two long weeks of work outside the country and I wanted to relieve my stress from the work and the flight," she said but Sakura didn't understand the words in between the lines. Was it that hard?

"Sakura, Ino and I kinda have a thing going on for the past couple of years." I confessed, but I swear to god I don't understand how Sakura can be so damn oblivious on this. She looked at me like I was an alien and then back to Ino.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?" she asked and Ino growled in frustration. I bit my apple out of frustration and watched, amused, while Ino exploded with her supposed to be best friend.

"It means sex, you retarded, big forehead! Sex!" she declared, and I saw Sakura's face turning red with the idea. "You know, the kind of thing you haven't had since your divorce?"

"Shut up, Ino pig!" Sakura screamed, throwing a notebook at Ino, who - luckily - avoided it easily. "I had sex after my divorce!"

"I don't need to know that!" I stated, but was completely ignored.

"And I didn't need to know you two are having sex!" Sakura screeched and tried to hide her flushed face. I don't get this woman, how come she was still a prude even at the age of 28 and after a marriage? And yes, marriage. Because after spending more than 8 years obsessing over a certain bastard that never paid attention to her, Sakura went to college, met a guy who was nice and kind to her, fell in love and got married at the age of 22 after a year of dating. It lasted a year and half before it crumbled down and they got divorced.

"You asked!" Ino remembered her, cursing and grabbing the notebook on the floor. "Anyway, what the fuck do you want me for?" She read what Sakura had written on the notebook. "High school reunion?"

"Yes! Our 10 year reunion that Naruto is desperately trying to ruin." Sakura pouted and crossed her arms, annoyed.

"Uh, I like this," Ino said, a smirk showing up on her face. Sakura's eyes were suddenly sparkling and I just knew I was going to get screwed. "Count me in, forehead, I'll help you with this. And don't worry," she turned her glaring eyes to me, "Naruto will be there as well!"

"Oh fuck!" What had myself gotten into?!

**x x x**

"So that is why I got that weird text from Sakura earlier today." Shikamaru looked at me for a second before returning his attention to the food he was preparing. "It sounded more like a death threat than an invitation, but-"

"Well, it's not like Sakura is exactly sane," Kiba cut in and chuckled, while grabbing a few beers from Shikamaru's freezer. "But that text really sounded too weird, man. Why is she so clingy on this prom reunion thing?"

"To screw with my life?" I questioned and thanked Kiba for the beer. After that crazy morning in my apartment, I showered in time recorded and ran away to my office in order to escape the two insane women planning something that sounded more like torture to me than actually _fun_. I worked for a few hours before calling Kiba for a coffee and, running into Shikamaru somewhere after 5 PM, we ended up at Shika's place for some manly gathering over dinner. "I mean, come on! Everyone knows I hated prom and she decided that prom should be the theme of the reunion?"

"You need to understand that yes, everyone knows you hated prom, but no one knows exactly why!" Kiba said, sipping his beer and sitting on the living room's floor next to Akamaru. "I mean, you were prom King against all chances and you hooked up with that cheerleader from… where again?"

"I did not hook up with anyone and the prom King bullshit was humiliating!" I grunted, pouting and turning my head to the side. "Let's not talk about it, seriously. It's enough to have Sakura trying to recreate it."

"And you'll have to deal with it because she will never forgive you if you don't go," Shikamaru said and I grunted. "Unless you want to tell her the real truth of why you hate prom so much."

"So there is a real truth that I don't know about?" Kiba questioned, giving me a sharp look and I sighed. They were suppose to be my friends, why were they doing this to me? "I thought you were my friend!"

"Now you're being worse than the girls!" I accused him, but it made no difference. And it was not like I had any chance of avoiding that subject for too long. After all, reunion was coming and if I wanted any chances of surviving it, I needed the guys help. "But fine!" I declared, messing up my hair and looking at Kiba. "It's because of Sasuke."

"Sasuke?" he repeated with a weird, confused look on his face. "But Sasuke has been away from town since..."

"Since prom!" I said and I felt my stomach starting to hurt just by mentioning Sasuke. That subject has been taboo for so long it actually became painful to talk about. I sipped my beer, messing hair even more, and tried to filter the bad memories. "Sasuke left because we had a huge fight during prom. He was suppose to stay in town and go to the local university, but he decided to go abroad after that and I only saw him for brief minutes on Sakura's wedding."

"I thought you two still talked," Kiba said in a lower tone, not sure how to deal with the situation. I shook my head and looked down, in between my knees. No, Sasuke never directed a word to me after that night. And the last time he actually looked at me, there was a hurting shadow on his eyes and I was not sure why. I mean, yeah, I'm stupid and I don't really get a lot of stuff, specially when it has to do with people's feelings, but… I thought I knew Sasuke. And I thought we had some kind of special connection. And then he left.

"Well, if he comes to the reunion, you can talk." Shikamaru suggested and my stomach hurt again. A grimace spread through my face and Shika rose an eyebrow. "Don't be a kid, Naruto. It's obvious that the you still regret what happened a lot, so you should try to talk to him."

"What if he doesn't want to talk to me?"

"And since when does Uzumaki Naruto backs off from a challenge?" he asked, focusing on the food he was preparing again and I heard Kiba making an agreeing sound while drinking his beer. They were right. But Sasuke was not the kind of a challenge that someone would take on easily.

"He was never a big fan of this kind of things." And it was true. The only reason Sasuke went to prom was because I forced him to and that was also true for all the other high school gatherings and events. He would go watch my basketball games just because he knew I would annoy him to no end if he would miss one. "Do you think he'll come to the reunion?"

"I wouldn't count on that. Sharing Corps is passing through a reformulation and I bet he's going to be drowning in work." Neji's voice sounded from the corridor that connected the living room to the rest of the apartment and he showed up at the living room's door in the next second. He was wearing pyjama pants and was bare chested but Kiba made a weird sound and my eyes widened before Neji's hair. It wasn't exactly normal looking.

"What happened to your hair?" Shikamaru asked, surprised by the part of Neji's hair that was looking very sticky.

"Your daughter drolled on it," he replied, rolling his eyes.

"Well, it's your fault! I asked you to make sure she would take a nap, not to take a nap with her." Shikamaru chuckled.

"I'm going to take a shower," Neji informed before turning away.

"Wait, why did you say Sharingan Corps is under reformulation? I didn't hear anything!" Sasuke's mom's company was under reformulation and no one knew about it? That one was new. Neji sighed and gave me a bad glare.

"I'm going to take a shower because I don't want to be smelling like baby drool for any longer and then, we can talk about it!" he stated, leaving the room and making Kiba laugh hard.

"How did you tame Hyuuga Neji to make him babysit your kid, Shikamaru?" Kiba asked and Shika tsked.

Looking back in time, no one would ever imagined that Shikamaru would have a kid by the age of 28. Lazy genius that never had a serious relationship during all high school, that was _friends with benefits_  with one of the female teachers and that always said marriage and kids wasn't for him. We were around 24 when, one night, Shikamaru walked into the bar we usually meet, with a face paler than I ever saw, sat down quietly and said, "I screwed up." We all got worried, Shikamaru was the only one that didn't screw up. Not even once. He told us he was going to have a baby and most of us didn't really believe him. Shikamaru having a kid? That didn't make sense. But he was so nervous and so desperate that we ended up believing him and, a few months later, a very small, cute and round baby girl showed up in our lives. We never found out who the baby's mother was. I believe she's some kind of super top model or famous actress, Kiba thinks it's an older married woman and Lee said something about a princess from a far away kingdom. Without the mother around for we never knew what reason, Shika ended up raising the baby by himself. He got a very high paid working-from-home job and he makes sure his kid has all the attention in the world from him.

"I don't know what happened!" Shikamaru muttered, putting his hands on the counter and looking at the door Neji just left. "I told him he could stay awhile, after his divorce, and now my daughter is calling him _Nejidada_!"

"That's adorable, Shika!" I declared, and it was. The cold and powerful Hyuuga Neji playing babysit was not something you would see everyday.

"It is," he agreed, shaking his head and returning his attention to the food. "Miwa adores him and we've been playing married life because of that."

"Men, you two are so gay!" Kiba grinned and Shika gave him a bored look. Shikamaru had been listening to Kiba's idiotic statements for too long to even care any more.

Neji was back in the room with his normal looking hair in a few minutes and he took a beer from the freezer and tried to take something from Shikamaru's cooking, which only gave him a slap on his hand. He sat near us on the floor after that.

"You were saying something about the Sharingan Corps.?" I reminded him and Neji chuckled.

"Oh yeah, Sharingan Corps is passing through a bad phase at the moment and I'm sure Sasuke is overworking." he took a sip of his beer before passing a hand through clean and wet hair. "Yeah, you know that Itachi was the one taking care of the firm, right? Like, Mikoto is the real owner, but Itachi is the one making the thing work."

"Of course we know that, Itachi has been the super perfect son since ever!" I declared and it was true. Mikoto was the owner of a very big law firm, but Itachi was the one running it, even if he was just 33. His brains made him became a lawyer by the age of 20 and he was a big hit on his mom's firm as soon as he was part of it. Him getting all the way until the top was obvious and Mikoto giving him the leadership of the firm was no surprise. "But what the problem then?"

"Well, Mikoto and Fugaku have been making a lot of pressure for Itachi to get married. Apparently, it doesn't look good that someone in his position is still single." Neji made a disapproval noise about the idea of marriage. Kiba laughed. "Anyway, there was a dinner with a very few important _friends_  last month - we were no more than 15 people - Hinata and I were there to represent Byakugan Inc., and Fugaku started to make pressure for Itachi to date one of the friends' daughter."

"For some reason I'm not seeing it ending up well," I commented and Neji grinned. I knew Itachi for years and he was always a very controlled and very polite psycho. He would be perfect at anything he was doing, but if something was annoying him too much, he would rip that person's throat off with a soft smile on his face. I was always afraid of him! He is scary!

"Let me get to that," Neji took another sip of the beer. "We were all sat in this very fancy table, and the daughter of the man in question was there as well. She, obviously, got all red but you could see on her face she was interested."

"Of course she was! Every single woman in the world would drop their panties for Uchiha Itachi to smile at them. Imagine marriage!" Kiba stated and I agreed. Itachi was scary as hell, but women seem not to be able to see that part of him.

"Anyway, she was looking all in favor of it and so was her father, and Fugaku was saying his weird stuff of ' _how amazing it would be_ ' and the family was agreeing, when I noticed that Itachi was actually smiling." Neji made a pause for suspense and I knew exactly why. Uchiha Itachi smiling means the apocalypse was coming and he's the one causing it.

"What did he do?" I asked and I heard Shikamaru laughing in the kitchen. I looked over the counter that separated both divisions and I saw that he was really amused. What in the hell's name had Itachi done? "Don't say he massacred the entire family, please!"

"I think it was even worse!" Neji laughed for a second. "He cleaned the corners of his mouth in a very polite and classy way, put the napkin down on the table, grabbed the glass of white wine and, with the most peaceful poker face in the world, he said, quoting: ' _Well, father, I'm deeply afraid I will not be able to fulfill your wishes of marriage. I've been trying to make you understand, in the most delicate way possible, that I do not have any interest in marrying whichever woman you try to push into my way. And since you did not understand it in the best way, let me be absolutely clear about this_.' he drank the wine, put the glass down and continued: ' _I am gay_!'"

"PFFF- WHAT?!" Kiba spit his beer and I almost did the same. Neji continued like he wasn't interrupted.

"' _I have been gay since I can remember. I like cock. Very much actually. And I am in a relationship with someone who has a cock! So, no, father, I do not intend to marry some woman you try to make me marry. I intend to keep living with the man that I have been living for more than 15 years now and I am so much in love with. So, if you excuse me, I will leave this ridiculous dinner that was only meant to make me get engaged to someone and go home, to my man, who is waiting for me_.' And he got up and left." Neji finished, the grin still on his face. "He also said that he would deliver his resignation letter in the next morning, so the entire family is very shaken and I'm sure his parents are pushing all his responsibilities to Sasuke."

"That was a prank, right?" Kiba asked, his eyes almost out of his face. "Itachi can't be gay, come on!"

"Oh he is gay!" Neji confirm it, sipping his drink. "Itachi is not the kind of guy that would drop a bomb like this as a joke."

"How can he hide it so well?" I asked, shocked. Not in a million years I would guess this.

"It's Uchiha Itachi, Naruto. Unless you go to his apartment, you'd never realize that." Shikamaru said, finishing the dinner. I noticed Neji was on his feet and helping bring the dishes to the living room in the next second. "I only found out when I went there to deliver work because the internet went down in the area."

"I didn't know you were working for Itachi!" Kiba said sniffing the food over Neji's shoulder and getting a nasty look for it.

"I'm not. I'm working for Shisui," Shika said and my jaw drop. Kiba didn't get it.

"Man, what does working for Shisui has to do- oh!" and there shall be light in Kiba's brain. "For real?"

"Yes. Apparently for a long, long time now." Neji put the plates on the small coffee table in front of us. The food looked delicious. Shikamaru joined us right after with the last plate and a cold beer.

"I went there with Miwa, she was about one at the time, and Shisui was so happy to see her that he took her from me and ran to Itachi saying something like ' _We could have one like this too!_ '. Itachi rolled his eyes and made a nasty comment about how every single soul in the world would know about them if it would depend on Shisui's brains." We laughed and we started to eat, the idea of the reunion long forgotten in my mind. Shika ended up telling us all the times Shisui would take care of Miwa before Neji had moved in and how, in all of those times, Itachi would say something about stop trying to kidnap other people's kids. Apparently, those two were a great couple.

Kiba made a comment about Shikamaru's food being so good he should break up with Neji and marry him - getting a very nasty look from Neji and a bored one from Shika - by that time baby Miwa woke up and joined us on the table. The dinner went smoothly and I left Shika (and Neji's) place around 11PM only to meet a very angry and annoyed Ino at my place. I completely forgot about my plans with her.

**x x x**

The next couple of weeks were all about the reunion. Ino and Sakura got so into it, that they seemed to have forgotten that other things existed in the world. And the worse part of it was that they loved to use my apartment to plan everything. So I ended up spending a lot of time with the guys and visiting my parents more than usual (which got my mom thinking that Ino and I were over - she thinks we're dating and I can't really tell her that it's just sex).

As the reunion was coming closer and the girls were getting crazier and more excited about it day by day, I caught myself depressing and thinking too much about prom. The night that was suppose to be the night of our youth became my personal nightmare and the thing I regret the most. Sasuke and I were friends since birth and inseparable. We grew up together, did everything together, told everything to the other and, out of the blue, we had that stupid and ridiculous fight that lead us to not speaking to each other ever again. I still remember perfectly the way he looked at me, full of rage and disappointment, and it still hurt. Deep inside I knew the real reason for that fight, but I never admitted it. I never was courageous enough to say it out loud, and that made me lose my best friend.

"Have you picked up a suit for the reunion yet?" Ino popped her head inside my room and glared at me. "You're suppose to wear a suit and I'm not letting you go with jeans and converse all star, specially because you're my date and I want you to look good!"

"Who are you trying to make jealous?" I asked, looking at her with a crocked eyebrow and she gave me another glare.

"I'm not trying to make anyone jealous. It's the high school reunion and I want to look as good as I always do, so I kinda need that my date - that means you - is also looking stunning!" she hissed, returning to the living room where she was finishing I don't know what with Sakura. "So go pick up a suit!"

So that was the reason I ended up shopping with Neji on that afternoon. Kiba and Shikamaru didn't do suits, nor did Shino, Lee or Choji. Itachi did, but I was scared of him and my dad would mean that mom would tag along and I don't want to go shopping with her (I love her dearly, but shopping with Kushina is torture!).

"I don't think it's normal that someone of your current status does not own at least a suit, Naruto!" Neji stated and I frowned. We were in a fancy suit shop and Neji was picking suits that would look good on me. I notice that the associates were looking at us from the corner of their eyes (probably I should have worn more formal clothes instead of a Star Wars t-shirt, old jeans and my ripped converse. Neji was looking like a casual model.) "Your design company is important, you have famous clients and you are suppose to attend to parties! Why don't you have a suit?"

"Ino goes to all the parties as my representative. I don't do good with fancy people," I pouted and Neji rolled his eyes. He took a last suit out and put it on my hands, along with all the others, and sent me to try them out.

"You should learn how to deal with fancy people, as you put it. Ino won't be around to save your ass forever!" he stated and I knew it was true. Neji sat on a comfortable looking sofa while I entered the dressing room. "I talked to Sasuke last night." he said, sounding casual and my stomach back flipped. "He got the invitation, but he's buried in work, as I predicted."

"So he won't come?" I asked and I knew my voice sounded off. I was not sure what I was fearing the most, Sasuke going to the reunion or not.

"He said he would try." Neji put it simply and none of my doubts or anxiousness went away. "Don't stress over it, Naruto. Sasuke is back in town because of this Itachi leaving the firm thing, so I'm sure you can arrange something in case he doesn't show up."

"I called him everyday for six months after prom, Neji," I confessed, my t-shirt forgotten in the small table of the dressing room. "I sent countless texts and emails, and he never said a thing."

"That was ten years ago, Naruto. He's a different person now, and so are you." Neji was obviously right, but that did very few to help the twirl that was growing in my mind. "We're all different people now. I mean look at us! Shika is a dad, you're friends with benefits with Ino, Kiba is a womanizer, Lee and Hinata are the most happy couple I ever saw, I got a divorce because…" he fell silent after that.

"Does your uncle know?" I questioned quietly, taking off my jeans and finally starting to dress the first suit. "The real reason behind your divorce?"

"No…" the answer was so low I could barely get it. "He almost disowned me when I told him I was getting a divorce, imagine if he knew the real reason."

"And how are things with Shika?" I asked, knowing I was touching a delicate subject. "He told us Miwa is calling you Nejidada now."

"It's been almost a year that I'm living there and I grew to love that girl so much… but it's complicated." he confessed and I hear him sigh. "Shikamaru is a good friend and he won't tell me to move out. I don't want to move out either, but two grown up men living together and playing couple for the sake of a four year-old is not healthy in any way."

"You guys need to figure out your situation, Neji," I muttered, knowing perfectly well I wasn't the best person to tell him that. "I mean, you guys are freaking awesome and-"

"Shut up, Naruto, you're sounding like Temari!" Neji hissed and I laughed.

"Is Temari telling you to make a move?"

"It was the first thing she told me when we signed the divorce papers and she hasn't shut up about it ever since!" I laughed harder. Neji was clearly annoyed by his ex-wife's attitude, but he also knew she was right and only wanted the best for him. "I don't need my ex-wife telling me to go jump into one of her ex-boyfriends pants!"

"Temari rocks, man!" I stated, finishing buttoning my suit and taking a good look at the mirror. "I would marry her if there was the occasion." I smiled at the mirror and exited the dressing room for Neji to take a look.

"It looks good on you, but maybe the colour is a little bit off. Go try another one," he commented and I sighed. Neji continued. "And you won't marry Temari, the last thing she needs is another gay husband!"

"Hey! That's not true!" I protested and crossed my arms over my chest, pouting. Neji rolled his eyes.

"Ok, lets go back to pretend we never had sex!"

"That doesn't make me gay, Hyuuga Neji! It makes me bi and I never pretended that we never fucked!" which happened a lot more frequently that I should probably like to admit, but yeah. "Does Shika know about it?"

"Does Shikamaru ever not know about anything?" Neji hissed, clearly annoyed. "I'm almost sure he's a mind reader!"

"You're living with the super genius, what were you expecting?"

"Shut up and go try the next suit!" he ordered and I laughed again, re-entering the dressing room. "I don't need Ino trying to kill me because we got late to prom and you don't have a decent suit."

**x x x**

"Kiba… you did what?!" Shikamaru was looking at Kiba with his eyes wide open in surprise and I'm sure my face had the exact same expression as well. It was reunion night and I had just arrived at the place with Ino - who ran to go talk to Sakura about something important related to the event - and I met Shika and Neji staring at Kiba's left hand. When I approached them, I saw the clear golden wedding ring on the mutt's hand.

"You got married?!" I screeched in a very undignified way, but I couldn't help it. Kiba grinned widely. "To whom?!"

"You were not even dating anyone! How do you go off town for a week-long vacation and get married?!" Neji interrogated with a big disbelief tone on his voice. Kiba kept grinning.

"Shit happens, mate!" he stated, messing his hair and completely ignoring all our questions.

"No, Kiba, shit doesn't happen, you make it happen!" I declared, completely shocked by whatever was happening at that moment. "Who did you marry?"

"Karin."

"WHAT?!" we all interrogated, completely shocked.

"Yeah! She's pretty awesome and we get along nicely!" and he smiled. Just like that, Kiba gets married with Sasuke's crazy ex-stalker?! What the hell is wrong with this mutt? "We've been talking a lot lately, and we met by chance during our vacations and one thing lead to another and shit happens, mate!"

"Kiba," Neji started to speak very slowly, holding Kiba by the shoulders and looking directly into the dog's brown eyes. Shikamaru was speechless and I was still trying to make sure I wasn't still dreaming. "You don't get married on a whim! Marriage is something that you should use your brain to decide and not your penis!"

"I agree with Neji on this, mutt. Dating would be one thing, but marriage?" I questioned, still not sure what exactly was happening. "Does your mom know about this?"

"Ah... oh fuck, my mom!" Kiba stated and Neji slapped his forehead. "I haven't told her yet!"

"Kiba, you're an imbecile!" I declared, shoving my hands in my trousers pockets and shaking my head.

"I did something really stupid and idiotic, but there's nothing I can do to change it now!" he said, grabbing his cell phone and walking away from us to call his mom. "So I just have to hope it lasts forever!"

"How come Kiba does the most stupid thing on earth and I believe he can make it last forever?" I asked and both Shikamaru and Neji showed their agreement. "I mean, last time I did something stupid, my dad had to go bail me out at Anko's police office."

"I married a woman, Naruto, let's not talk about stupidity," Neji commented and I chuckled at his expression. Shika scratched his head.

"I did one stupid thing in my life and it gave me Miwa, so I don't even consider it as a stupid thing," Shikamaru smiled and took a glass with champagne from one of the tables. I was about to say something on the lines of how adorable Shika was in a dad's role when I noticed Lee and Hinata approaching us. Neji discretely grabbed a glass of champagne and drank half of it before the couple greet us.

"How have you been, guys?" Lee asked, smiling brightly while holding Hinata's arm.

"Good, Lee, good." I answered, noticing that Neji was still trying to avoid Hinata's eyes without being rude to his cousin. "And how's the preparation for the Olympics?"

The conversation flew easily. Lee was an elite martial artist and he was preparing to participate in his third Olympic Games. Hinata, on the other hand, was just back in business after her second maternity leave for their second daughter. I had to admit that Rock Lee and Hyuuga Hinata were, certainly, the last couple I would bet on for a happily ever after, but they were – again, certainly – the ones pulling it better so far. We chit chat for a while, Hinata asking Shikamaru about Miwa and telling him they should gather one day for the girls to hang out and become friends when I notice Neji was gone.

When Neji started to date Temari, the entire high school thought it was a big scandal. After all, Temari was Shikamaru's ex and Neji was a close friend with the lazy genius, so people just assumed that was all a big thing. What most people didn't know was that Temari and Shika were never serious with each other and it was Shika who actually told Neji to 'go for it' when he noticed how close his ex girlfriend and Neji had become. I remember that I thought how ridiculous the idea of Neji and Temari sounded. Neji was a very good looking nerd with a very heavy pressure from his uncle to excel in everything, while Temari was the proud badass girl that didn't care much about school and thought motorbikes and street races were way more interesting. How Neji and Temari became friends was a mystery for most of us – Shikamaru knew, of course he did, but he never said a word and I suspected he had his finger on it – but the fact was that, on the second trimester of our senior year, Hyuuga Neji and Sabakuno Temari were honestly dating. They went to prom together, graduated together and went to the same university. When Neji finished his master degree at the age of 24 and got a big position at his uncle's firm (where he had been working for a long time) he proposed to the university drop-out and number one motocross female racer of the country. Obviously, Neji's uncle was not very much fan of the idea of having his extraordinary gifted nephew married to a motorbike woman, but when he realized who in fact Temari's family was – the owners of the biggest motor engine's company of the country – he was very happy with their union.

Their marriage lasted two years before it started to crumble down and, an year ago, they decided to officially sign the divorce papers. Obviously that Neji's uncle did not like this and there had been a very big commotion within the family because Neji was divorcing a family that was as rich and influential as they were. Hinata tried her best to defend her cousin, but Neji never told her the real reason for the divorce and Hinata was not stupid to believe in the "we grew apart" bullshit Neji told his uncle. Not that Neji didn't trust Hinata with the truth, but he was very confused when he signed the papers and the less people know about his reasons, the better.

And, obviously, Shikamaru knew the real reason behind it because it was Shikamaru and he was a mind reader. And I found it out later, in between shots of vodka and tequila. And bedsheets.

"What about your daughter, Shikamaru? Where is she?" Lee asked after he told us all the details about his two girls favourite game. "Is she with your mom? I thought Yoshino-san was living in the lake house now."

"Na, my mom is indeed in the lake house taking care of the deer sanctuary along with my dad," Shika confirmed it, smiling. "Miwa is with Itachi. He said he would babysit her for the night."

"Itachi-san?" Hinata asked with a very surprised look in her eyes. "Is babysitting Miwa?"

"Well, actually, I think Itachi is using Miwa to distract Shisui so he can work during the night, but he said he would babysit her so why not?" I tried to control a chuckle before Hinata's astonishing expression and Lee confused one. I remembered, then, that Hinata had a crush on Itachi during high school.

"S-so, Itachi-san is really l-living with Shisui-san?" she asked in a low tone and I noticed her blushing slightly. "They were always very close, I can't believe no one noticed before..."

"Well, Itachi was always very private and discreet about his personal life, so I was not surprised he pulled it off for so long," I said, looking around casually. It was not like I was trying to see if Sasuke had arrived yet, I was just... looking for Neji! Yes, looking for Neji. Who was currently standing near the bar and had a very comfortable and smiling Temari standing right next to him. I believe that was the first time Neji and Temari were seen together after their divorce and the fact that they looked very close was not missed by most. Gossip was starting to fill the room and, eventually, Hinata noticed them as well. A painful shadow were cast upon her eyes and her slightly embarrassed and happy mood darken within seconds.

"Who would think they 'grew apart'?" she muttered in a very soft, but hurt, tone. Hinata had lost a lot of her timid nature when it came to dealing with her feelings and family problems.

Thankfully, Shikamaru was fast pulling the conversation to a distracting subject - "Hey, do you want to see pictures of Miwa helping me bake a cake? She's adorable all covered in flour!" - and moving casually like he was not trying to cover Neji with Temari – that had her arm laced with Neji's know and was whispering something into his ear – and thank the lord Lee knew how to read hints when it came to his wife's well being, so when Shikamaru finished showing them the baby pictures, Lee suddenly saw someone and dragged Hinata to the other end of the salon. I sighed.

"Hinata really didn't take well Neji not telling her the truth about the divorce, hun?" I questioned and Shikamaru scratched his head, a mist of sadness and tiredness spreading on his expression.

"How was he suppose to do that?" the lazy genius asked no louder than a whisper, turning to look at the place where Neji was smiling at his ex-wife. "Call Hinata and say ' _Hey, the truth is that Shikamaru got us drunk last year and started to say some of his bullshit that makes people understand stuff about themselves, even if they don't want to, and I realized that I like cock so I got a divorce'_?"

I looked at him and saw the hidden pain on his eyes. It was true that Shikamaru understood a lot of things about his friends way before they would even realize it, but it was also true that he would be the most careful person in the world when and if he decided to talk to the person about it. - " _Naruto... do you really think you're feeling like this just because Sasuke is your best friend?"_  - But a drunk Shikamaru was not as filtered and correct as a sober one was, and him and Neji had a long history of being painfully honest with each other. So, I don't really know what happened on that day, but Shika was drunk and Neji was drunk, and I'm sure Neji was pushing the 'my marriage is falling apart and I don't know why' subject too much and Shika said something he wouldn't have if he was sober.

Truth to be told, Neji disappeared for a week after that and, within a month, his divorce with Temari was out.

"You know it's not your fault, Shika." I told my friend, knowing perfectly well that he didn't need me to tell him that – Shikamaru was smart enough not to be blaming that on himself – but I needed to make sure he knew I didn't blame it on him either.

"I know," he said, turning around and leaving to go talk to someone he saw. "But it had my finger there."

The reunion went on peacefully. Ino eventually returned to my side and played my date perfectly. I kept pretending I was not waiting for Sasuke – although I got a heavy pressure in my stomach every time I saw a dark haired guy – and we kept talking and happily chatting with everyone that would cross our way. Karin was telling everyone how insanely happy she was with her flash marriage to Kiba and how super happy they were going to be taking care of Akamaru before the first kid arrive – and Kiba spit his drink on this point. I'm sure the mutt hadn't think about kids. Chouji had become a food critic for a famous food magazine and was happier than ever. Shino was working in the local zoo as their insect keeper. Tenten – who was currently talking to Neji – had joined the military after graduation and was a Sergeant working in the weapon department. All things considered, everyone looked like they had good lives and were happy with their professions.

By 23.30 Ino and I were a little bit tired of all the talking – and gossip! Damn women and their gossip! - and decided to dance. We were shaking our asses in the dance floor when I noticed Sakura sat in a table alone with a bottle of Jack Daniels. Sakura and her depressive moods would be the end of me one of these days. I told Ino – who was slightly drunk and pushing our physics teacher Genma into the dance floor – that I was going to sit for a while and headed to Sakura's table.

"Everyone is so happy and successful!" she commented when I sat next to her and poured some of her whiskey into an empty glass.

"You're pretty successful too," I said, turning the contents of my glass into my mouth and drinking it all at once.

"I'm a school teacher, Naruto!" she stated, raising an eyebrow. "I don't like my students, I don't like my schedule, I don't like my job! I'm 28 and divorced, without a boyfriend and the man I was hoping to see tonight because I'm a fool who keeps dreaming about my high-school crush didn't even show up."

"I'm not drunk enough to be having this conversation yet," I muttered and poured another dose of whiskey into my glass. "But, hey, I don't have a boyfriend either! And I hate my clients! And I lost my best friend on prom night, 10 years ago, and was hoping he would show up today so we could make up, and no sign of him either!"

"But you and Ino...?" she questioned and I sighed, drinking my whiskey again.

"It's casual, whenever she's in town and we're feeling like it." I told Sakura, who gestured an "oh" with her mouth and finished her glass as well. "And, as you can see by the way she's flirting with Genma, it's not something that is going to last."

"Ino always had a crush on Genma-sensei," Sakura chuckled, filling both of our glasses. "Like you always had a crush on Kurenai-sensei!"

"Well, Shika was having an affair with Kurenai at the time and it was a big turn off when I found out about it!" I said and Sakura gasped. "What? You didn't know? It was a big scandalous in the middle of our senior year. They were seen by another student together in a coffee shop. It was the gossip of the trimester! I don't know how the other teachers never found out about it!"

"Because it's Shikamaru." I chuckled and Sakura smiled back at me. Our conversation kept flowing through nasty paths, with a lot of laughing and good memories in the mixed. The bottle of whiskey was finished by the time my watch beeped at midnight. I sighed and looked around. That night hadn't been as bad as I predicted. But then again, Sasuke wasn't there.

I was freaking out most of the day with the possibility of seeing Sasuke again. I really didn't know what happened on our prom night, how come we had that massive fight and weren't talking after that. I tried to call and send texts, but he never replied and, when I saw him again at Sakura's wedding, I did try to go talk to him. But the hurt expression on his face took me unprepared and, then, he was gone. A part of me was dreading seeing Sasuke again but... another part of me really wanted the bastard to come so I could try to talk to him. Even though I had no idea of what to say.

But there we were, Sakura and I, drunk with whiskey, at midnight of our reunion and no sign of Sasuke anywhere. It was sad that we were both getting drunk over the same guy. I laughed, feeling somehow like one of those sad women from the romance movies. It was so stupid and sad!

"Sasuke-kun..." I heard Sakura whispering and I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, Sakura, we're not drunk enough for you to be calling Sasuke's name like that yet!" I hissed, grabbing the empty bottle to make sure it was really empty.

"No, Naruto!" she stated and the sudden sober tone of her voice called my attention. "It's Sasuke-kun!"

My head turned so fast I could hear my neck popping. And she was right. Standing near the bar, holding a glass on his hand and talking casually to Neji, there was Sasuke.

"Fuck!"

* * *

_**First dance - omake** _

It was almost 9 PM and Sasuke was still sat on this new office, working. The fact that Itachi decided to pull the drama-queen and leave the family's company with his fabulous "I'm gay" revelation only came to fuck up his entire life. And he could have said no to his mother when she called begging him to go and fill his brother's vacant place but when Itachi called to ask the same thing... damn all the big brother issues Sasuke had!

_Plim!_

His cellphone warned him that a new message had arrived. Sasuke ignored it since he knew exactly from whom that message was.

_Plim!_

Another one, not even five minutes later. Sasuke cursed and ignored it again.

_Plim! Plim! Plim!_

"AAHHH!" he grabbed his phone, ignoring the 10 unread messages and calling directly to the person who was sending them.

" _Did you see the pictures?_ "

"Neji! Stop sending me pictures of Shikamaru's daughter covered in flour!"

" _But she's so adorable!"_

"In the first picture, yes! Not in the 100 you sent after that!"

" _She's adorable in all of them! Wait, I'll send you one of her with the bowl on her head! She's super cute!_ "

"NEJI!"

* * *

**A.N.:**  I hope you enjoyed it. Second chapter will be on soon.

Review!  
 _Akira_


	2. Second dance

**A.N.:** This took too long, but it's finally here. Enjoy!

 **Beta:**  Lemonlov3 (cheers to you, dear!)

* * *

** Second dance **

" _Sasuke! Sasuke, wait!" Naruto ran out of the dark class room and down the corridor, following his friend. He slipped when he turned right after he exited their Sciences classroom and cursed. Blaming the alcohol he had stole from Kiba. He kept running as he passed through a couple of girls in their fancy dresses, whom started to giggle. Naruto was after all running bare chested and that was always a pleasant vision – and to gossip about. He looked left and right at the end of the corridor and briefly saw Sasuke walking fast to the school's front door, with a cell phone in his hand and he seemed to be talking really fast. "I said wait, bastard!"_

_Naruto exited the school and saw Sasuke standing by the front gate. He took a big breath and walked to his friend, a hand messing his semi-combed hair. Naruto stopped right next to Sasuke, who then stepped away from him the next second._

" _What the fuck happened?" Naruto asked, but he got nothing as an answer. He cursed. "Sasuke, talk to me! What is wrong with you?"_

" _You! You are what is wrong with me!" Sasuke hissed, undoing his tie knot and shoving the piece of textile inside one of his pockets. The slight blush on the raven's features didn't pass unnoticed by his friend. "I can't believe I actually came to this stupid prom! What a fucking waste of time!"_

" _What happened, Sasuke?" Naruto almost yelled, grabbing Sasuke's arm and pulling him closer when he tried to step away again. "You were perfectly fine half an hour ago!"_

" _Get off me, you imbecile!" Sasuke pulled his arm from Naruto's grip and shove the blonde away from him. "Why don't you go back to that classroom and go grab that bitch's arm instead!"_

" _Sasuke, what-"_

" _You made me a promise for this fucking prom and you failed me, Naruto!" Sasuke shoved him again and the other teen took a step back, surprised by his friend's words. "You don't get to lie to me! You don't get to keep all your promises to everyone but say 'fuck you' to me!"_

" _Sasuke, I swear, I-" Naruto tried to talk, but Sasuke was slightly touched by the alcohol Kiba mixed into the punch and there was obviously a lot of things coming out at the moment that a sober Sasuke wouldn't allow._

" _Shut up! I don't care anymore!" He yelled, walking away while making a hand signal to a taxi that was approaching. "And don't talk to me again. I don't need your kind of people as my friends!"_

" _Sasuke!" Naruto shouted, but Sasuke was already in the taxi as it drove away. The blonde took his hands to his head and cursed, loudly._

_What the fuck had just happened?_

**x x x**

As Sakura got up and ran to say hi to Sasuke, I found myself suddenly appreciating the magnificence of Temari's hair.

"Naruto, are you hiding behind me?" And she dared to ask such blasphemy! "You know Sasuke won't bite you, right?"

"Yeah, but he could spit fire on me." I muttered, still hiding behind her and trying to look at Sasuke between Temari's and Shika's shoulders. "He could be an evil bastard like he has been all his life and-"

"And you're not suppose to be drunk, you know?" Shikamaru said and I pouted. "You were the one saying how you were going to be sober the entire night, so in case Sasuke actually shows up, you could talk to him decently."

"And who the hell shows up to prom at midnight?" I hissed, looking from over one of Temari's shoulder to the other.

"Prince Charming!" She replied and I looked at her confused. What the fuck does Prince Charming have to do with prom? "The one that shows up at midnight."

"You're not funny!" I told her and she laughed. Then she laced her arm around my neck and punched my head softly – or strongly, I don't know, I wasn't feeling much at the time.

"Go talk to him." Temari said and I looked at her like a second head had just grown out of her. "I'm serious, go over there and talk to him like nothing happened."

"Have you ever met Sasuke?" I questioned, getting rid of her arm and leaning against the table next to them. "He would bite my head off if I tried to talk to him like nothing happened."

"What about just trying to talk to him?" Shikamaru suggested, sipping his drink. "Because right now, you're hiding behind a girl."

"It's a damn badass girl, in case you haven't noticed." I commented and got a kiss on the cheek from Temari in return. I could marry this one. I really could. "And what am I suppose to do? Go over there and say 'Sasuke, we need to talk'?"

"It would be better than nothing," and I knew perfectly well that he was right, but my brain was in love with it's drunk'n state too much to allow me to think clearly at the moment. So I looked back at Sasuke – who was trying to ignore the smartphone that Neji was shoving in his face – and sighed.

"He just looks like he didn't see me!" I pouted and Temari hugged me.

"Poor baby Naru-chan, he's being ignored!" I take back what I said about marrying this one.

"Naruto, you're the one that has to decide what to do. We can't do that for you." Shikamaru said, and once again he was right. And then he looked at Sasuke with Neji and chuckled.

"I think you need to tell Neji to stop shoving pictures of Miwa to people's faces, Shikamaru." Temari commented and I noticed how Sasuke was about to hit Neji. "He takes this being a dad thing way more extreme than you do."

"I don't like to bother people with how adorable my kid is. Neji does." Shikamaru smiled and turned to look at us. "He likes doing this very much, he feels super proud of Miwa, specially now that she's calling him dad as well. Let him be happy. It's kinda cute."

"I might be drunk, but I noticed you just called Neji cute!" I pointed a finger at my friend and Temari started to laugh out loud. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Don't pull a Kiba on me, Naruto!" He begged and I grinned. Then, I noticed Sasuke looking at us while Neji was walking in our direction, so I just cursed and walked away discreetly – or maybe I could say that I whined and ran like a scared little puppy, but I definitely prefer the first version.

"Itachi sent a picture!" I heard Neji telling Shikamaru while I was walking to sit down with a drunk Kiba. "He says ' _Your daughter stole my husband, my dog and my cat! I can finally work. She should stay over more often._ ' and look! She's so cute!"

"You two should get married soon, you know?" Temari said, chuckling, and Neji gasped. I was sure Shikamaru was covering his eyes and cursing his life.

"So Temari is also saying those two should get married?" Kiba asked when I sat down next to him, a cocktail in his hand.

"Stop picking on Shikamaru and Neji, Kiba!" I told him, stealing his cocktail and drinking some of it. "Just because you're crazy and got married like an insane madman, doesn't mean everyone is. And what the hell are you drinking?"

"Amaretto Sour," he opened a huge grin.

"Is this one of those things in where you go all girly girl and try to pull it very manly, although everyone knows it's girly?" I asked, looking curiously at him. "Like you wearing girl satin panties because it's more comfy?"

"Man, I told you before! My jewels are delicate! And they like the touch of the satin, it's comfy!" Kiba growled and I sighed. Why was I friends with this kind of guy again? "Are you going after Sasuke or what?"

"You too?" I interrogated, not wanting to discuss that subject again.

"Yes, me too. I spent three months with you dying every day in my bed because Sasuke didn't answer you. And then, I had to hear about it again and again every time we got drunk during the first year of college." Kiba stated and I pouted again. Why did my friends have to be always right, damn it? "Go talk to Sasuke!"

"But he's going to spit fire on me!" Yeah, I was being a child. But the fact was that I was so nervous – and drunk - that I couldn't force myself to just go there and talk to him. What if he ignored me again?

I mean, I couldn't until Kiba said what he did next.

"Damn, Naruto, I didn't know you were such a pussy!" That does it! I growled at Kiba and saw fire in front of me. The mutt grinned and I cursed. Damn Kiba was right, I was being a big ass coward! I suffered too much and agonized too much over Sasuke to give him the satisfaction of not confronting him. I was so going to pull him to a corner and ask "What the fuck happen?!" or I would do it in the middle of the dance floor if it was needed. But I was going to!

"Watch me, Kiba! I'm going to rock this shit up and talk to Sasuke once and for all!" I declared, standing up and heading to Sasuke's direction.

**x x x**

" _I don't get it! I seriously don't get it!" Naruto howled in pain, messing all his hair while he was walking from one side to the other in Kiba's room. "It's been a week since prom and Sasuke still doesn't answer the fucking phone, or any of the texts! And every time I go over, his mom makes an 'I pity you' expression and says he doesn't want to see me! What the fuck did I do wrong?"_

" _Hey man, don't ask me. I was never able to understand Sasuke." Kiba commented, laying on his bed and reading a comic book. "He was always semi-psycho, so maybe he just went completely psycho."_

" _But why?!" Naruto interrogated and Kiba looked at him with a cracked eyebrow. It was amusing that Naruto didn't deny the semi-psycho part. "The only thing he said was that I failed on something that I had promised him! But I didn't! I swear I didn't!"_

" _What did you promise, then?"_

" _I promised that it was going to be the best night of the year and that we could try to get Kakashi-sensei drunk!" Naruto stated, growling. "And we did it! Kakashi-sensei was all flushed and happy reading his porn and we had so much fun during the entire night! I don't get it!"_

" _Maybe he was jealous that you were Prom King instead of him?" Kiba suggested and Naruto glared at him._

" _Prom King was humiliating and Sasuke was the one who made it happen!" Naruto declared, jumping into Kiba's bed. "He seduced the committee that were counting the votes and made them change the winner! He was the one who was supposed to be Prom King, not me!"_

" _Maybe he was just constipated on the night and-"_

" _Kiba!" Naruto growled and Kiba laughed._

" _I'm sorry mate, but I really don't see what's happening." He tossed his comic book aside and looked at Naruto, who was laying down on his bed in a very weird position. "Maybe you should ask Neji, they're close. Or talk to Shikamaru, he's the mind reader, so I'm sure he knows what happened."_

" _Yeah, I think I need their help." Naruto muttered while Kiba got up and took his old game console from the closet. "Maybe I should call Itachi."_

" _No, man, no! That one is scary and will hunt you down and peel you alive just because you upset his little brother!" Kiba set the console down and threw a controller to Naruto. "Now, forget Sasuke for a moment and come play."_

" _Give me a minute to call him again and I'll go play." Naruto said, grabbing his cell phone and speed-dialing the raven. Kiba tsk-ed._

**x x x**

I'm pretty sure Sasuke is a ninja.

That's the only possible answer that I can find for the fact that he was able to disappear every time I walked in his direction. It was fucking ridiculous! It had been an hour since I decided to hunt him down and talk to him and he kept disappearing. I would see him somewhere, start to walk to him, then he would move slightly out of my sight and  _BAM!_  Gone! I could almost imagine him doing those sassy ninja movements to hide and escape the enemies.

I sat again at Kiba's table – Karin was half dead all over his left arm – and cursed!

"He's avoiding me!" I stated and Kiba tsk-ed. "I've been trying to talk to him for the past hour, Kiba, and he always disappears in the last moment!

"Sasuke's a ninja! He goes za-za-za and poof, gooooone!" Karin laughed, drunkenly, before going back to sleep on Kiba's arm. Crazy married insane. Lovely!

"You can try to ambush him on his car," Kiba suggested, grabbing his phone and looking at the time. "The night is pretty much over. A couple of more songs and it's done. Shikamaru and Neji already left. And I'm waiting for Chouji to take us home, as soon as he's done hitting on... I'm not sure who, but whatever." He yawned, continuing. "So you should just go ambush Sasuke on his car. It's a safer option than dealing with the ninja bullshit."

"I'm so tired, Kiba... really, so tired." I confessed, burying my face in my hands. "I really wanted Sasuke to just talk to me. Tell me what happened. But this is so not worth it! I don't have to crawl for this."

"Well, you did survive ten years without him." Kiba said, shrugging. "You need to make the call, man. Or you try again or you don't. But I can not tell you what to do."

I sighed, getting up and heading to the bathroom to wash my face. I looked myself in the mirror and took my tie off, unbuttoning the first two buttons of my shirt and messing my hair up a lot more than it already was. I was tipsy and slightly flushed and I certainly was not in the mood to deal with that prick's bullshit. I cursed and returned to the salon, taking a look at it. Ino was dancing with Genma, next to Lee and Hinata who were also enjoying the dance floor. Chouji was chatting with some girl I was almost sure was his Chemistry lab partner, back in high school. Temari was talking – seducing? - the bartender, Kiba and Karin were half dead on a table, Sakura was pretending to be a tree and stalking Sasuke, who was talking to someone he knew from his former archery club.

And he seemed ok. A little bit tired, but if he was taking over his mom's firm, then he wasn't looking as bad as I thought he would. He was well dressed - as always - and looked like he didn't have much to worry about. He looked  _fine_. And that annoyed me very much.

I turned back and headed out of the salon. I was really upset. Sasuke was fine.  _Fine!_  I was suffering, almost torturing myself because I knew we needed to talk and he was just fine. I was running up and down the entire night trying to see him, feeling anxious and stressed because he  _had_  to show up so we could talk, because it was my  _only chance to get him back_! And the bastard was avoiding me, and he was fine.

"I'm such an idiot!" I hissed, exiting the salon and walking to cross the desert campus towards the taxi station. I took my jacket off, throwing it over my shoulder, my hand still holding the collar. I checked the old watch that was chained to my vest and saw it was almost 1.30 AM. It was too soon to go home, but I certainly didn't want to stay any longer. I saw Sasuke's car parked near the exit and cursed again. "Such a big idiot!"

"Well, I do have to agree on that!" I heard that voice echoing in the night behind me and suddenly my entire world fell apart. My stomach imploded, leaving butterflies on its former place and my heart was racing. I closed my eyes, almost certain that I was hallucinating – which only meant I was way drunker than I thought – and I bit my lower lip. Was my fate that nasty? "You were always some kind of an imbecile, I'm glad you finally admitted it."

"What the fuck do you want, Sasuke?" I managed to ask, still not turning to him. I couldn't. If I did, if I turned to him and looked at him, all my resolve would go to space. I took a deep breath. "You've been ignoring me the entire night, so now you decide to-"

"Save the last dance for me!" He declared and I felt like I was being shot in the heart. My eyes widened and I turned to face him. A twirl of emotions and fragmented memories hitting me hard. Why was that hitting me so hard?

"Wha-" I was sure my face was a mixed of confusion and hurt. That didn't make any sense and, somehow, I felt like I was missing a big piece of the puzzle there.

"Judo club, two weeks before prom, we made a bet." Sasuke said, his hands on his tux's pockets, tie loose and a button of his shirt undone. He was standing a few meters from me and I could hear him perfectly, even though he wasn't speaking louder than he would at a church. "We were sparring and you made some sassy comment on how my fighting skills were getting worse, so we made a bet: If you won, you would take me to prom. And you did win."

"Sasuke, what..." I wasn't sure where he wanted to go with recalling that, but I was so moved and so internally happy that he was finally talking to me that I couldn't dare to finish my question. Hell, I didn't even remember I had a question at all.

"So I punched you in the arm and asked for another round. This time, if I won you would wear a proper tux to prom instead of that orange blasphemy you called a suit. And I won." He recalled and it finally showed up in my brain, the memory of that afternoon, in the judo club. "You wanted a final round before we could go home and this time, I said that, since we were going to prom together, if I won you would save the last dance for me! I won. And you-"

"And I disappeared to a dark classroom with a drunk cheerleader and lost the last dance- Sasuke!" I exclaimed when he turned his back to me and started to walk to his car. "Sasuke, wait!"

"Someone advise me that maybe I should tell you why I decided that I didn't want you anywhere near me anymore, so I did." He said in his super professional tone and kept walking away from me. "Now you know, you so can leave me the fuck alone and I can-"

"Will you listen to me, bastard?" I ran the couple of meters that separated us, my jacket falling on the floor, and I grabbed his arm, pulling him to me, like I had done ten years before. "You were always like that, taking precipitated conclusions and getting mad at me for it! Let me explain!"

"Explain what? Why you were half naked under a cheerleader, in a dark classroom, when you should've been dancing with me?!" He yelled, pulling his arm away and glaring at me. "I went to prom because of you! You had been talking about prom the entire year. How it was going to be amazing and how we're going to have the night of our lives. I didn't want to go to prom, you made me go! You promised me the night of my life, you promised me the last dance, and you fucked it all up!"

"That stupid ass cheerleader puked on me!" I yelled at him, making him step back and look at me like I had a third eye. I felt a raindrop hit my cheek, but I ignored it. "It was almost time for the prom to end and I was a little bit tipsy, but I had a plan! I had an entire plan to pull you to the dance floor and to have the last dance with you! I didn't remember that I had promised you that, you know my brain is stupid, but I had it all planned!" I confessed and Sasuke made a confused and defying expression. Like daring me to keep going. "So I went to the bathroom to make sure the stupid punch wouldn't decided to make me wanna pee in the middle of our dance and ruin it. And I was there when that stupid girl, that I didn't even know, decided to walk in the bathroom and trip on me. I grabbed her, preventing her to fall down and she just puked on me! All over my shirt!"

"What?" Sasuke questioned. And I could tell by his expression that he didn't want to believe in me. The raindrops were getting more regular, but neither of us seemed to be giving them any importance.

"I yelled at her and took my jacket and shirt off. Luckily my pants were ok. I looked at her and she looked like she was about to faint, so I grabbed her and took her to the classroom next to the bathroom. I sat her down there and when I was about to get out to get my t-shirt that was in my locker in the end of the corridor, she pushed me on the table and blabbed something about me being prom king and shit. She climbed on top of me and tried to kiss me and that's when you walked in." I looked at Sasuke's eyes and I saw the shadow of confusion disappearing, but his expression didn't get any softer. I messed my hair and cursed, looking directly at him again. I needed him to understand that, I needed him to... I don't know, just say something. "I didn't leave you for a drunk cheerleader, Sasuke. I didn't remember my promise, but I really wanted that dance with you."

"I..." He hesitated, pressing his lips together and looking away for a moment. Rain was falling upon us by now. Sasuke, turned and started to walk to his car again. "I should go."

"No! Sasuke!" I ran after him again and, again, I grabbed his wrist and pulled him to me. "Don't-"

"Why?!" He growled, glaring at me once again, but this time, he didn't pull his arm away. And his skin was burning under my touch and he was so close I could see the drops of rain on his long lashes. "What difference does it make now?! It's been ten years! None of us is the same. Nothing is the same and it won't be again just because-"

"Dance with me!" I grabbed his other arm and pulled him even more to me. We were face to face, eyes locked on each others, closer than we had been since our last spar in judo club, all those years before. Sasuke had an incredible shadow upon his eyes, like he didn't believe in my words or that I was actually asking him that. My grip on him started to loosen before his cold glare. I was near tears at the moment, I was so close to get him back, why was he being so difficult? I swallowed dry and licked my lips, one of my hands coming up to slightly caress his face.

"Let go..." he ordered, but his voice was trembling and weak and he was not stepping back. "Let go, Naruto. You're not-"

"Please..." I begged, on the precise moment a raindrop fell on my eye and rolled down my face. My soul was bare before him, my heart was there, in a silver platter and, somehow, I was mentally begging him not to rip it all apart. "Sasuke..."

I felt him moving and his hand pulling my hand away from his face. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see him walk away from me again. I couldn't handle it. Not a second time and after I had believed, even if for brief moments, that we could go back to what we used to be. I thanked the skies for the sudden rain in the beginning of the summer, since I really didn't want him to see me breaking apart like I was about to. My chest was heavy and my heart was hurting. Ten years I had dreamt of that moment and it was crumbling down right in front of me.

Until I felt him turn his hand on mine and holding it, while his other hand was delicately dropped on top of my shoulder, like he was waiting for me to lead in a valsa. I burst my eyes open and he was avoiding them, a very light tint of red spreading upon his cheeks. I smiled as openly as I could, almost laughing, and I laced his waist with my free arm, swinging us slowly in the rain.

And it felt like paradise, to have Sasuke right there and dancing with me. I couldn't hear anything, not the rain, not the cars that occasionally passed in the street next to the parking lot, not the thunders that ripped the sky. It was just me and Sasuke, dancing, like we should've ten years before, like I had planed, like we were meant to.

"Do you mind if I stick to my plan, even if it's ten years later?" I asked without getting an answer, Sasuke was still not looking at me and I could perfectly see his inner turmoil growing more and more. I chuckled. "I had planned to drag you to the dance floor for the last dance. I knew the committee had requested the band to sing ' _Save the last dance for me_ ' as the last song and since it was somehow a hit song at the moment, everyone would be on the dance floor for that last song." I told him, leading the very calm and soft dance we were enjoying. We were completely wet at the moment, but that didn't seem to bother any of us. "In a crowded dance floor, no one would notice us, even if we are two guys dancing together, so I was sure you wouldn't complain about it. I would pull you to the dance floor and hold your hand just like this and swing us around at the rhythm of the song. And then, I would pull you closer, like this," I pulled his body against mine and he turned his head to finally look at me, the uneasiness on his dark irises grew bigger. "And I would lean my forehead on yours."

"Naruto..." he muttered, eyes filled with surprise and fear and confusion and distress and, above all, hope. "Don't do this to me..."

"And I would tell you," I continued, like he hadn't interrupted me at all. We kept dancing softly and the rain kept falling, another thunder scratching the dark sky. "I would tell you how damn much you meant to me. And how all our fights and all our competitions against each other were mere excuses for me to be closer to you." And we're no longer dancing, and the water dripping of my face was no longer just the rain. I had my hands on Sasuke's face and my forehead against his, and I was praying for him not to pull away, because it was hurting so much, but I needed that even more. "And how I couldn't imagine myself without you and how much I needed you in my life!" My eyes were closed and I felt Sasuke's hands holding my wrists carefully. I couldn't look at him on that moment, or I would lose all my courage. "And how much... I was... so... madly..."

"In love with you." He whispered and my eyes flashed open, meeting his.

**x x x**

_Shikamaru threw his phone next to him on his bed. It was so annoying to have Ino yell at him about inviting a girl to prom. Prom was six months away! Why was Ino getting all paranoid so soon? Troublesome! He thought, and was preparing to roll on his side and take a nap when heavy footsteps were heard in his house. Within seconds, Sasuke was bursting inside his room._

" _Why the fuck did you have to say that?!" The Uchiha yelled at him and the Nara cracked an eyebrow, not entirely sure what he was talking about. "Everything was perfectly fine until you said that! Who asked you to play psychologist with me? Who asked you to analyze me, you fucker?"_

" _Is this about our talk, two months ago, about Naruto?" Shikamaru asked, sleepy. Sasuke slammed the door shut behind him._

**x x x**

My eyes met Sasuke's and I wasn't sure I had heard it right or, even if I had, I understood the meaning correctly. I was shaken with doubt and hope, my heart was racing faster than I ever felt it before and no words were coming out of my mouth. I wanted to ask him to repeat, to explain, to make sure he knew what he was telling me, but my voice was nowhere to be found and my brain couldn't order my body to do something. I was in shock, it was just too much. A second felt like an hour and the tension in between us didn't change. His eyes were fixed on mine, but I couldn't read them. His always cold and stoic expression didn't change and I was starting to believe that I hallucinated his words.

"Say it again..." I pleaded, breaking my frozen state, knowing that I was in a completely different dimension and Sasuke wasn't being merciful with me. I just wanted him to say it again. Just once more so I could be sure I hadn't misunderstood it. "Just one more time..."

Sasuke chuckled, like someone who just found out how insane he is, and let go of his grip on my wrists. The rain felt suddenly freezing upon that skin. He pulled my forearms apart, pushing my hands away from his face. My arms felt heavy next to my body, such was the feeling of sudden apathy. I was expecting nothing and everything. I was in a point where I just wanted something to happen, something to tell me I wasn't dreaming or trapped in an malign spell. I felt Sasuke's hands coming up, his cold fingers brushing the skin on my face before entangling themselves into my hair, pressuring my scalp and pulling my face even closer to his.

He didn't say it out loud. Oh no, he completely destroyed all the remains of my rational thoughts by brushing his lips on mine, mouthing slowly and painfully the words he stole from my voice earlier. My hands came up again, to hold his face, in the moment our lips made full contact and we finally kissed. I was never one to believe in all the butterflies and fireworks bullshit the teenagers adore to dream about, but kissing Sasuke was all that and so much more. It wasn't hot and passionate, it was slow and hurtful, with all the concealed feelings we held back for ten years coming to the surface. I felt dizzy. I wanted that and so much more and I had so many questions and there was so much to talk about. But I couldn't pull away from Sasuke's lips, from this tongue, from his taste, from his grip on my hair and his desperate need to assure me there.

I pushed him against me, feeling my lip being cut by his teeth, but I didn't care. Sasuke was kissing me, devouring me, having me all and completely to himself and I was more than glad to let him. He pulled my hair and bit my lip and hugged me close, scratched my back and breathed into my neck. Ripped me bare, heart and soul. And, in my ear, whispered quietly the dream I dreamt for ten whole years.

**x x x**

I honestly don't remember how we pulled away from each other, or how we got into Sasuke's car or exactly when we got to Sasuke's apartment is. My brain was fuzzy and hurting, it was too much emotion for the night. I was sitting on Sasuke's apparently new living room while he was in his kitchen preparing tea, and I was trying really hard to be adult and coherent about this entire situation. It was hard, though. Part of me just wanted to storm inside the kitchen, pull Sasuke into my arms again and kiss him senseless, while the other part was internally screaming like a scared five year old.

"The fuck am I doing?" I muttered into my hands, hiding my face on my palms and getting all the butterflies flying around my stomach again for remembering Sasuke's lips on mine.

I took my face from my hands and opened my eyes to a mug of hot tea being held in front of me. I looked up at Sasuke and he was still expressionless. I took the mug and said a quiet thanks. Sasuke sat on the other sofa in front of me.

"I'm sorry for the mess in here, but I'm moving and working and it has been complicated to do all at once." He explain simply, his voice as normal as it ever was, no hint of nervousness on it. He couldn't be that calm while I was about to completely lose it inside. It was just not fair.

"Yeah… I heard from Neji you're taking over Itachi's position." I said in a chitchat that wouldn't get us anywhere, but it was not like I actually knew how to bring up the subject. Or even if I wanted to bring up the subject at all!

"I'm not taking over Itachi's, I'm taking care of the work while my parents have time to heal from the scandal my brother decided to make. But they'll get over it soon and Itachi will have his job back." Sasuke commented simply, sipping his tea and not looking at me. "After all, it was not like they didn't know about Itachi and Shisui, they just didn't want to accept it."

"Your parents knew about Itachi?" I questioned, slightly amused by the out turn of the situation. "And still tried to get him to have very important dinner meetings to get him a girlfriend?"

"My mom was against doing it, but my father always said this thing between Itachi and Shisui was a phase." And Sasuke chuckled. Like he was making fun of his father's sorrow. "I really want to see his face when they finally get that baby they're trying to adopt home. It's going to be hilarious!"

"Your dad was never the best person to deal with, but Itachi sure knows how to piss him off perfectly." I said, sipping my tea and feeling a sudden burst of butterflies in my stomach again. "Sencha and soymilk?"

"You don't have it like that anymore?" He asked casually, looking at the mug in my hands before meeting his eyes with mine. Why did it feel like those ten years never existed in the first place?

"I do…" my voice was hurting and my head was confused with everything. I couldn't really believe all that was happening. It felt like those ten years never happened and, at the same time, it felt like I was missing him for an eternity. And I really wanted to cross the small distance that kept us apart. "You don't like soy milk. How come you have it here?"

I watched as Sasuke slowly looked at his mug and, with something I could have called a glimpse of a smile, he rose his mug a little bit.

"Sencha with cinnamon and soy milk. I kind of got used to it." He sipped his tea again and I watched painfully as my world shattered and my heart skipped a beat. I knew I was trembling and I knew I was holding that mug with too much strength, but the sudden rush of pure happiness mixed with anger that was running through my veins was swiping all the rests of my sanity away. "I guess some of your disgusting ideas are not so disgusting after all."

"You've been drinking one of my disgusting ideas for ten years but you couldn't pick up the damn phone?" I caught myself saying without looking at him. It was impossible for him to be drinking that for all that time without thinking of me at least once! And I was desperate everytime he crossed my mind over this last years, angsting over the idea of not having him around without a decent explanation for it, and Sasuke was just there: ignoring all my existence and drinking my disgusting idea of tea-for-bastards-that-don't-like-sweets. "You could have picked up the phone. Or send a text. Or punch me in the face at Sakura's wedding! Anything was better than utter silence, Sasuke!"

He was looking at me with that weird shadow over his eyes again and I knew he was going over a big, silent turmoil in his head. I knew Sasuke had his reasons, and I probably knew all of them after hearing his part of the story, but… I lost him for too long, because of some stupidity that could have been dealt with within minutes if he had picked up the fucking phone!

"I don't deal good with rejection…" he almost whispered, lips compressing against each other, dark eyes narrowing over an unpleasant memory.

"I didn't reject you!" I declared, putting my mug on the floor and getting up. "I was doing everything to have you, Sasuke. I would never reject you!"

"Being half naked under a bitch in a dark class room isn't exactly the best way to say I love you, you know?" He hissed, looking away and closing his eyes. "I know you were not jumping her. Now I know that! I didn't ten years ago. And I didn't deal well with rejection for a long time!" He cursed and reopened his eyes to fix them in an infinite point. "It was pretty clear to me that you were not interested in anything more than being friends. And it… hurt… so much to see you breaking your promise to me, because of some random bitch you didn't even know…"

"Sasuke…" I knelt down in front of him, sitting on my ankles, realising who that person was and what exactly everything that happened at prom really meant for him. Sasuke was the person that never said a thing about his own feelings, he pretended to be cold and he put that stoic mask on to make everyone believe feelings wasn't something he possessed. But deep inside I knew he was just afraid of voicing his dreams and having them crushed. "You should know I would never hurt you like that…"

"We were fucking brainless teenagers, how the hell would I know that?" He hissed again, his cold stare upon me hiding the whirl of shattered feelings and regret. "We seemed so in sync on those weeks before prom and on that night… everything was perfect as you had promised me. I had the most amazing time and there was no way it felt as friends!" He exclaimed, putting his mug on the floor as well and, leaning his elbows on his knees, glaring at me. "And then… arg! It was stupid! This is stupid! It has been ten fucking years! What are we hoping to change now? It doesn't-"

"I love you." I said, simply, and Sasuke's voice was suddenly gone. "I loved you ten years ago. Apparently I still do. I've been sleeping with and dating every one that was interesting enough and it never lasts because none of them is you." I confessed, not sure why I was saying that, but it felt right at the moment and the desperate expression on Sasuke's face was making me want to go back in time and make sure none of that ridiculous and stupid mess ever happen. "I don't know what happened in your life in these ten years, I don't know if the person you are now is still good for me."

"Naruto, I don't…" he started and I rose on my knees and held his face in between my hands and, for the second time that night, leant my forehead onto his. I heard him sighing and I saw him close his eyes.

"If nothing like this had happened... But it did and we were stupid and childish and idiots and it has been ten years, and a lot have changed. However, I do believe that what we felt from that kiss in the campus is more than enough reason for us to try and see if this works." I told him and silence followed. Silence in which I was, again, questioning every word I said and wondering if he would even consider my suggestion. A decade was a long, long time. Thousands of things happened. We both changed, we both lived different shaping lives and we both were far from being those two silly teens we were on high school. I was putting all my heart and faith in an hypothesis that could be as wrong for Sasuke as it felt as right to me. And the silence was driving my anxiety and nerves crazy.

Then, I heard him chuckle.

Butterflies burst all over my stomach once more because I knew exactly what that chuckle meant. So long since I had heard it last and, at the same time, it felt more nostalgic than the entire reunion. I was feeling like I was in paradise when Sasuke's hands came up to hold my face and his dark eyes opened to fix on mine. I smiled. "Got ya, bastard!" I laughed, pulling him in a damn tight hug. There was something rolling down my eyes, but I didn't quite care at the moment. "I finally got ya!"

"Yeah…" he hugged me back as strong, sliding to the floor and entangling or bodies. "You finally did."

**x x x**

"I knew it," Shikamaru smirked when he opened the door to his place on the next day's afternoon. It was Miwa's birthday party and we had a very small gathering planned. I frowned over Shika's words and heard Sasuke click his tongue behind me. Of course Shikamaru would look at us and know what happened. Damned mind reader!

"Stop doing that!" Sasuke told him when we entered the place and Shikamaru proudly smiled. "It's annoying!"

"Sasuke is right, you know? You could pretend you didn't read our minds and let me tell you about it over a beer in ten minutes." I stated and Shikamaru shrugged as I walked in.

"I saved you time, aren't we lucky?" He asked with a smirk on his face and I found it slightly odd. Shikamaru was not the kind of person to have fun with his mind reading powers unless he was in a fantastic mood. I narrowed my eyes at him, like I was trying to see through him. "Hey, the mind reader here is me, stop hurting your brain."

"What happened, Nara?" I questioned in a very curious way, following him to the living room where Neji and Shisui were playing with Miwa, Temari was watching all of that with a glass of red wine on her hand and a smirk on her face, and Itachi was standing near the sofa trying to ignore his boyfriend (husband?) being reduced to the mental age of 5, while talking with Sasuke. And apparently, Itachi was also a mind reader as Sasuke was blushing and clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. What's wrong with these people?

"Stop sounding like Temari! Nothing happened, Naruto. It's my daughter's birthday, I'm allowed to be happy, no?" He interrogated in a very neutral tone, entering the kitchen and having me following him. The doorbell rang again and Neji got up to answer it. Shikamaru opened the freezer and took two beers out. "But I'm glad you two kind of fixed your things."

"You knew about Sasuke's feelings, didn't you?" I wasn't sure why I was making that question, it was so clear I didn't even need an answer. "If you knew, what took you so long to convince him to talk to me?"

"Naruto, have you ever tried to talk to Sasuke when he puts something on that thick and empty head of his?" Shikamaru snorted and I had to control myself not to laugh with the veracity of the facts. "I tried my best, I swear I did. But he's a fucking stubborn moron!"

"Hey, that's my fucking stubborn moron you're talking about!" I pouted and Shikamaru rolled his eyes, giving me one of the beers while Neji returned to the living room with Ino, Sakura and Tenten, who ran to go hug Miwa. "Hey, we didn't have much time to get Miwa a present. What did she ask for?"

"She wants to live with Itachi," Shikamaru sighed and I almost spit my beer laughing. He crossed his arms, looking at the little girl running away from Tenten to hug one of Itachi's legs. "Apparently, she's madly in love with Itachi's cat, so she wants to go live with them. Shisui agreed on the moment. I don't think it's normal for people to try to adopt my kid like this."

"You know Shisui was always very dedicated and into his own things." I chuckled and Shikamaru shook his head, taking a sip of his beer.

"The worst part of it is that I know I'll come home to a cat tomorrow, because Neji is completely under the control of the whims of a 4 year old." And I laughed loudly, calling the attention of the ones in the living room to us. Shikamaru was right, Neji loved that girl so much, he would buy her the moon if she asked for it. "It's going to be hard not to spoiler her anymore than Neji already does. But oh well…"

"She is very loved, that's the important part, right?" I watched as the little girl was grabbed by Neji, giggled loudly when he tickled her and started to call for  _papa_. Shikamaru smiled quietly, left the beer bottle on the counter and walked around me to exit the kitchen and go save his little girl. "Oh, Shika?"

"Yeah?" He asked, looking at me from over his shoulder. I gave him a smirk.

"You might want to cover the hickey on the back of your neck before any of the girls sees that." I commented and Shikamaru clicked his tongue and  _glared_  at me before reaching for his hair tie and without saying a word about it, getting his hair loose to cover the mark, walking out of the kitchen.

"Don't worry, Miwa, papa is here to save you!" He exclaimed and getting a general  _ow_  from all the girls. And Shisui. Who was looking at Itachi with the biggest puppy eyes I had ever seen in life. And seeing a Uchiha doing that was scary as hell. Specially considering how damn well it actually works. I need to be careful of Sasuke!

While everyone was focused on the baby and the two dads, Sasuke sneaked into the kitchen and leant his back on the counter by my side. His hand brushed softly against mine and I smiled. That was definitely not the moment to tell everyone we were trying to be together, and I was glad both of us knew that. We needed to stabilize whatever this was in between us, figure out if we could actually work and then, we could break a few hearts (and possible get ourselves in the hospital for that) when we finally decided to tell everyone. Until then, public discretion was advised.

"So…" he looked at me with a smirk. "Neji has a huge bite mark on the junction of his neck and shoulder."

"Shika has a hickey on the back of his neck." I informed and Sasuke raised an eyebrow with his smirk still in place. "We weren't the only ones getting lucky yesterday."

"It looks like prom was actually what prom should have been!" Sasuke chuckled, looking over his shoulder at his brother having his hair braided by Miwa, who already had worked Neji's into two side braids. "Drunkenness and sex and people getting together after sex."

"We got together before sex!" I stated and Sasuke hit his shoulder against mine. I smiled. "But yeah, you're right. Prom was finally the way it should have been."

"And cheers to that!"

**End**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N.: I'll be writing a side fic of this one soon, but it will be focused on Shikamaru and Neji instead of these two idiots. That one has a lemon scene *smirks* You can find it on my profile under "Two to Tango".
> 
> Reviews and thoughts are always welcome, let me know what you think of this baby.
> 
> Also, if you want to follow me on twitter to know more about what I'm working on and what/when I'll be publishing new things, you can do it by searching for: AhAkira_ I tend to rant about ideas and plots and thoughts on manga there, so feel free to interact or suggest a prompt if you would like.
> 
> Finally, stay tuned on my profile or my twitter. A multichapter, M+ rate (smut!), yaoi and het fic is coming *grins*
> 
> Authors like reviews very much, so leave me one, pretty please ^^
> 
> Cheers,  
> Akira


End file.
